Getting creative with your money
Our view: The push for new taxes begins
By North County Times Opinion staff

If you don't think your taxes are too high, ignore this editorial.

Last week state Sen. Denise Moreno Ducheny, D-San Diego, was at Cal State San Marcos telling members of the California Faculty Association that the state's fiscal crisis would require the university to "get creative."

Of course, by that she did not mean eliminating administrative waste, curbing generous teacher pensions, or cutting marginal courses.

No, it's quite clear that Ducheny meant agitating for new taxes. Or, as she put it: "If I give a dollar and you give a dollar and everyone gives a dollar, we can help."

But new taxes aren't only being contemplated by liberal Democratic state legislators.

In Republican-leaning San Diego County our representatives on the San Diego Association of Governments held a retreat late last month to plot how they were going to get voters to approve a "quality-of-life" tax in 2010.

This one-quarter- to one-half-cent sales tax would target ocean pollution, beach sand replenishment, open space, public transit or all of the above.

For as worthy as these goals may be, it bears repeating that SANDAG just this year started collecting the half-cent TransNet tax extension that was approved by voters in 2004. That tax is expected to collect $14 billion by 2048.

That's in addition to the $16 billion in fees, tolls, taxes and assessments that the members of the SANDAG board included in the Regional Transportation Plan approved by it last fall.

If you're worried the agency may be rushing head-first into a doomed attempt to make living in San Diego County even more expensive, don't worry. Gary Gallegos, SANDAG's executive director, has promised that he won't ask voters to approve the new tax before the agency has spent a lot of taxpayer money on polling and focus groups. "We want to win, and we want to find out what will work," said Gallegos.

You can be sure he'll follow up with hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of glossy "informational" fliers that will be mailed to voters -- again, at taxpayers' expense -- once the tax qualifies for the ballot.

Between the state budget crunch and a recession, it's only a matter of time before North County cities begin feeling the pinch. Oceanside and Escondido are already talking about their own budget cuts. When they do, taxpayers can expect local attempts to raise taxes.

Already in Encinitas, the City Council wants voters to approve a measure to extend the city's 10 percent transient occupancy tax to private homes rented to vacationers.

"I think it's only fair to let the (owners of) short-term rentals participate in paying for city services," said Encinitas Mayor Jerome Stocks. "I don't think it's fair to discriminate against them and not allow them to help."

Never mind that the owners of short-term rentals already "help" by paying property taxes.

None of this implies that all taxes are bad or unjustified. But the comments above represent a "what's yours is mine" attitude that sees tax hikes as the solution to every problem.

We're fortunate that Proposition 13, which requires a two-thirds vote in the Legislature to raise taxes, and Proposition 218, which requires that local voters be allowed to approve or reject local fees and taxes, prevent politicians and bureaucrats alike from getting too "creative" with our money.